APOD: 2026 October 14 – Mars and the Beehive Under an AuroraWhat a cosmic coincidence! In today’s image, Mars joins the Beehive cluster below an auroral curtain and above a horizon of happy little trees near Lansjärv, Sweden.
Hurricane Simon Lurks Off the Mexican CoastThough it remained offshore, the storm lashed coastal areas with high winds and flooding—and produced remarkable rippling patterns in the upper atmosphere.
NASA Names Astronaut Christina Koch Acting Deputy Chief EngineerNASA engineer and astronaut Christina Koch will serve as the agency’s acting deputy chief engineer beginning on Sunday, Nov. 1, following the retirement of Katherine Van Hooser, who will conclude more than 35 years of distinguished service to the agency on Wednesday, Oct. 21. In her new role, Koch will help lead NASA’s engineering community, […]
Comparing Off-World Rover Driving DistancesDescription This infographic illustrates the distances driven by various rovers on the surface of Earth’s Moon and Mars. Of the vehicles shown, the NASA Mars rovers Perseverance and Curiosity are still operational and moving across the surface; the figures shown for those two are distances driven as of Oct. 11, 2026. As of that date, […]
NASA’s Record-Setting Perseverance Rover TeamDescription Members of NASA’s Perseverance Mars mission team gather in the Mars Yard at the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California with a certificate from Guinness World Records marking the rover distance record on the Red Planet. Positioned in front of the team is OPTIMISM (Operational Perseverance Twin for Integration of Mechanisms and Instruments […]
Perseverance Navcam Image Marks Record DriveDescription Rover tracks and a rocky Martian landscape are shown in this image captured by one of the navigation cameras (navcams) aboard NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover on Oct. 11, 2026, the 2,006th Martian day, or sol, of the mission. During that sol’s drive, spanning 299.6 feet (91.31 meters), the mission passed a major milestone: pushing Perseverance’s total […]
Transporter-18 SmallSats EncapsulationThree NASA-supported small spacecraft, along with many commercial payloads, are shown before being encapsulated in a SpaceX Falcon 9 ahead of launch on Oct. 1, 2026. The ASCENT Propulsion Dual Mode CubeSat, the Supernova Remnants and Proxies for ReIonization Testbed Experiment (SPRITE) CubeSat, and the Small Spacecraft Propulsion and Inspection Capability (SSPICY) mission will demonstrate […]
JOB OPPORTUNITIES: NASA OFFICE OF THE GENERAL COUNSEL1 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
Voyager Technologies’ Griffin-1 Completes Environmental Testing at NASA JPLDescription A lunar lander from Voyager Technologies completed nearly three months of environmental testing at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California in late September 2026. The tests demonstrate that the spacecraft is prepared to face the harsh conditions of launch, its journey to the Moon, and landing on the surface. Its final trial was […]
TB 26-08 Complex Modes in Lightly Damped Structural Systems: A Two-Mode Interaction PerspectiveFor more information, contact Joel W. Sills, Langley Research Center,
[email protected] Download the PDF version Complex mode shapes can emerge in a linear structure even when overall damping is low. This behavior can occur when two structural modes are closely spaced in frequency and are coupled through nonproportional damping. As the damping interaction increases, the […]